When Jesus had received the wine, he said, “It is finished.” Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
After Jesus received the wine offered him on a hyssop branch, pulling together the two major strands of Israel’s story, he says words that, in my humble opinion ☺, are translated...

Pilate also had an inscription written and put on the cross. It read, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.” Many of the Jews read this inscription, because the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; and it was written in Hebrew, in Latin, and in Greek. Then the chief...

And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
One further word on these verses as they reference a story that is perhaps not as well known to us but gives us insight into how John understands...

Then Jesus told his disciples, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit them if they gain the...

Dear Partner in Preaching,
Have you ever heard the sound of a heart breaking? Do you remember what it sounds like? Maybe it was your son or daughter’s heart breaking when they graduated from high school or college only to find the job market had disappeared. Or maybe it was your sister’s heart breaking when the doctor called to say the cancer was back. Or maybe it was your friend’s heart breaking when he called to say that his marriage was over.
Have you ever heard the sound of a heart breaking? Do you remember what it sounds like? I think we hear that sound again in today’s gospel reading. It might be hard to detect at first, but if...

When some of the bystanders heard it, they said, “This man is calling for Elijah.” At once one of them ran and got a sponge, filled it with sour wine, put it on a stick, and gave it to him to drink. But the others said, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him.”
Tragedy...

Then two bandits were crucified with him, one on his right and one on his left. Those who passed by derided him, shaking their heads and saying, “You who would destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.” In the...

Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the governor’s headquarters, and they gathered the whole cohort around him. They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, and after twisting some thorns into a crown, they put it on his head. They put a reed in his right hand and knelt...

Then they spat in his face and struck him; and some slapped him, saying, “Prophesy to us, you Messiah! Who is it that struck you?”
It’s the abuse that I find most difficult. Much of the Passion, when you read as slowly as we are, is hard to endure. From the agony of the garden to the...

When it was evening, he took his place with the twelve; and while they were eating, he said, “Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me.” And they became greatly distressed and began to say to him one after another, “Surely not I, Lord?” He answered, “The one who has dipped his...

The following video is a follow-up to the one I posted last Friday on Forgiveness and Happiness. What I found interesting – and initially almost kept me from posting it – is that it’s barely about forgiveness. In the video, Justin, the host of Soul Pancake’s Science of Happiness series, asks one of the participants if he wants to take the exercise from the experiment – delivering to a mirror the words of forgiveness he’d prepared for his sister – one step further by actually calling her.
As he does, you’ll realize it’s not so much that she’s done something wrong, but that he feels bad for being far away and regrets...